Establishment – 78 cents Land was purchased at Kallarpe on January 2011, Building Construction started in February, Machinery Erection started in June, Power connection was obtained in September, Trial production was done in October and commercial production started in December 2011. Packing machines got shifted in January from Parladka unit to Kallarpe unit and packing started in January 2012. Coconut Development Board again gave financial assistance under Technology Mission on Coconut for setting up the new oil mill. Term Loan and Working Capital was availed from Karnataka Bank. Van sales started in January 2012 to begin full fledged commercial operations.
Production Streamlining – All the installed machines were fine tuned to make them work as expected, efficiently and together. Operators were trained to increase throughput, minimise breakdown and maintenance. Quality, Hygiene and cleanliness was tightened. Experiments were made in manufacturing process and the right process was adapted. Copra procurement was fine tuned to purchase only copra made from fresh coconut of good quality from selected vendors.
ERP Implementation – Company was into losses in the first 2 years. The extent and reasons for losses were not exactly known as there was no real time accounting and inventory tracking system. Then it was thought, the day we get the know the real picture of business is the day the company will get into green. So an ERP system was developed with a server and thin clients for computing, connected over a LAN, Tally 9 ERP as software. Account heads, ledgers, stock items were created and transactions were accounted real time to give the management a clear picture of business. Management could analyse the reports to understand the status of business and make decisions accordingly.
Induction of Professionals – Professionals in each functional area like Production, Stores, Purchase, Accounting, Sales, Branding and Quality were inducted and Promoters delegated their responsibilities to them. Employees benefits like ESI, PF and festival holidays were given. Annual festivals like Ayudha Pooja and Deepavali are celebrated, monsoon trips and skills training are conducted. Everyone wears company uniforms. Annual performance reviews are done and good performers are rewarded. These activities have benefited the employees and helped the company build a strong employer brand where best of people are attracted and retained.
Van Sales – Sales Van was purchased for the purpose of line sale/distribution of Cocoguru products in January 2012. One route starting from Puttur is covered on each of the 6 days of the week. More vehicles were purchased and deputed, more routes were added and sales team grew from 2 to 15, no of vehicles increased from 1 to 8. General stores of all sizes are supplied in the districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kodagu and Kasaragod through Van Sales.
Distribution Network – Like company owned and operated Van sales, third parties have been appointed for distribution. Our sales team work with the distributors in gaining confidence with the retailers, growing the market for brand and distributors. Distributors and Van Sales complement each other in supplying products to retailers. Distributors with their familiarity with local area and retailers, company salesman with their knowledge about product and company work together in addressing the market.
Brand Building – Manufacturing good quality oil and satisfying retailers are not sufficient. Communicating the value to consumers is critical. This is done through brand building. Consistent and attractive presentation of products and other brand touch points were done. Advertising was done with retailers co-operation by putting up Signboards, Posters, Hoardings, wall stickers, wall clocks and calendars. Digitally brand building was carried out though social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Pages. This has helped consumers build a strong liking for the brand Cocoguru.
Coconut Oil Varieties – Old unit at Parladka was making coconut oil with cold press process where copra was crushed without heating copra and transparent white oil was obtained. But this oil was only sold in own counter at Puttur town or was given to Job work customers. Production capacity was increased to sell in packaged form in blue colour packaging. New unit at Kallarpe was tailored to make roasted coconut oil where copra pieces were roasted before oil extraction. Resulting oil had strong aroma and taste, long shelf life and yellow in colour. It is packed in green colour packaging. Above 2 varieties are from dried coconut or copra. Then virgin coconut oil was introduced where it is extracted from fresh coconut.
E-Commerce
With growing customer base for brand and them distributed at various places across India geographically, online portals like Amazon, Flipkart and JioMart provides convenient shopping medium for ordering, payment and door delivery shipment even for small quantities. Cocoguru is successfully listed across all of them by following the respective marketplace guidelines. We will work on listing on more other popular marketplaces and providing more convenience for shopping.
Modern Retail
Cocoguru is a brand that looks to satisfy consumers and retailers are only a means towards this end. We experience more sales when the product is displayed in a super market shelf than when we leave it to retailers to sell, because consumers can simply pick the product when they see it. So to make the product available to our consumers, we are looking to place the brand in popular modern retail chains. Now we have succeeded in placing on 8 Reliance Stores across Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. Also available on super market chains like Nilgiris. Cocoguru is available in standalone supermarkets like Mangal Stores, Puttur, Deepa Super Shop, Uppinangady, Yashoda General Store, Kadaba, Misbah Super Market, Mangaluru City, Sadanand Superstore, Surathkal, Kamadhenu Super Market, Gonikoppa and Virajpet and so on.
Environmental Friendly Initiatives
Company really cares for the environment and has taken up many initiatives towards it.
Tree Planting – Forest and fruit growing trees are planted and nurtured across the campus (170 trees), Sudhana Sports Club (50 trees), Aradhya Layout (35 trees), Pushkara farm land (400 trees).
Water Conservation – Rainwater falling from factory roof is collected and used. Open well is done adjacent to stream, maximum water is utilised from it to use rechargeable surface water before using bore well only during peak summer months of May. Checkdam is built across stream to check flow of rain water and use for improving ground water table and irrigation.
Garbage Disposal – Garbage generated are segregated and disposed of carefully so that they are recycled.
Cleanliness – Campus and surroundings are cleaned regularly to make it litter free, garbage free.
Vegetarian Restaurant – To promote the use of coconut oil for cooking, a vegetarian restaurant was started in 2023. There we offer a variety of tradiational Mangalorean dishes, freshly prepared, all using coconut oil. Valuing healthy and hygiene in all our business, the trend is continued in restaurant also. Technology is extensively used to ease operations and effectively serve customers. Environment is taken care by treating sewage waste water, using food waste to generate biogas and keeping premises clean. We also have a counter for educating tourist consumers about the varieties and benefits of using coconut oil for cooking.
Packed Oil Fried Snacks – Chips from locally grown fruits and vegetables like Banana, Jackfruit, Breadfruit, Topioca and Sweet Potato are fried using oil coconut oil. They are sold at restaurant counter now and will be available at premium general stores and super markets shortly.
